Tuesday, January 24 2006 12:02 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Fifteen months after being voted to power in Maharashtra, Congress today (Jan 24, 2006) emerged as the single largest party in the state assembly as it won all the three assembly bypolls held on January 21.

With this victory, Congress now has 72 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly, and overtakes NCP, its ruling partner in the DF government, that has 71 members in the House.

The Sena, which lost all the three seats to Congress, now has 59 MLAs and its ally BJP has 54 members in the Assembly.

Sources said today's bypoll results would adversely affect the Sena's plans of increasing their tally in Assembly to 61 by winning the Naigaum and Shrivardhan assembly bypolls slated for February 16.